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Retail Focus - Raw Revolution

Kate Makey – manager of The Bran Tub in Petersfield – looks at the growing trend for raw foods among health store customers

I’ve noticed an increase in interest in raw foods in recent years, and particularly in the last year. I think it’s down to growing awareness among customers of health and nutrition, and the fact that healthy eating and raw foods are talked about so much more in the media and on the internet. Some customers are going all-out for a raw diet, and others just want to incorporate more raw foods into their daily lives to be a bit healthier.

A silver bullet?

It’s amazing to think that a trend in a way of eating can be driven by an electrical gadget, but the increase in customers coming into our store and asking for raw food products has risen hugely since the Nutribullet came along. It was particularly noticeable just after Christmas; a lot of people had obviously been given Nutribullets as presents, and they came in looking for the ingredients to put in them. The bullet actually comes with its own recipe book, so we get a lot of people coming in asking for the same things from those recipes, but others arrive clutching print-outs from the internet, or torn out of magazines, or recipes from Jamie Oliver’s Superfoods book.

I actually don’t think that this is a trend that’s going to go away any time soon. Other things have come and gone slightly, like juicers or spiralisers, and people tend to stop using them because they turn out to be a bit of a hassle or are difficult to clean. But the Nutribullet, and the copycat machines, are actually great, really easy to use, and with hardly any mess or washing up. It’s one of those gadgets that’s popular because it’s actually brilliant! It also means that you can use every part of the ingredients you put in, seeds, skin and all. So it’s not at all wasteful, and is also very healthy. As well as putting lots of fruit and veg in, you can add powders; there are lots of different ones, maca for energy, and açai is a great antioxidant.